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symptoms of sciatic neuralgia - How to Use Massage Techniques for Sciatica Pain Relief
How to Use Massage Techniques for Sciatica Pain Relief
Persons suffering from
seek pain relief in different ways. In some cases, where patients are suffering from acute pain, medications can provide relief. In extreme cases, epidural injections and even surgery may be suggested. Even after all these treatments, for long term relief from
pain, people do turn to sciatic stretches as also look for various massage techniques for
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Debbie Shimadry is as an expert guest on magnetic therapy for BBC Radios and is also the managing director of leading magnetic therapy company worldofmagnets.co.uk. If you are interested in natural pain relief visit the magnetic article directory or the health reciprocal link exchange directory.
Magnetic therapy for
. Sciatica can resolve by itself but this can take many weeks or even months. You can however quite rapidly reduce the symptoms of
with magnets. As with all magnetic therapy treatments, the magnets have to be placed as close to the area of pain as possible, this will be the lower (lumbar) region of the back. Even though you may have pain down your legs or in your buttocks the cause is still in the lower back. When you treat the back area and the sciatica resolves then the pain running down the leg and buttocks will also dissipate.
What is sciatica?
is the official name given to a pain in the leg, foot, or buttock, brought on by a form of irritation to the sciatic nerve, the longest nerve in the entire body.
is most commonly caused by a slipped disc in the lower back, some form of arthritis, or a pinched nerve. It begins with back pain, followed by calf or hamstring pain, and sometimes included numbness in the toes. Forms of
, resulting from inflammation get better with time, healing themselves. However, bed rest is not the best way to treat
. It is shown that remaining active and performing exercises that are not weight bearing can help. Given time, even herniated spinal discs can heal.
There are really only 2 magnetic therapy devices that are effective in treating sciatica: 1 .A magnetic therapy back strap or support. The functional straps and supports can be placed directly over the area of pain. If the
is very low in the back then a narrow strap will be more practical and altogether more comfortable than a wide support, as it fits snugly around the hip area and will stay over the compressed nerve. A wider support is effective if the sciatic pain is higher and nearer to the waist area. As with all magnets the straps/supports need to be worn for 24 hours and 7 days a week until the pain has gone.
It has been found that for many people, even those with chronic
, massage techniques have provided significant and long-lasting relief. It has to be noted that for healing effects and long-term relief, these massage techniques have to be performed properly and regularly.
The pain can vary widely, from a mild ache to a sharp, burning sensation or excruciating discomfort. Sometimes it may feel like a jolt or electric shock. Sciatic pain often starts gradually and intensifies over time. It's likely to be worse when you sit, cough or sneeze. Usually only one lower extremity is affected.
There may be many reasons for sciatic pain - it could be caused by some irritation in the 5 nerve points leading to the sciatic nerve, irritation or compression in the sciatic nerve itself or because of some tightening in the vicinity of the Piriformis muscle. Irrespective of the cause, it has been found that massage therapy helps all these conditions. Massage therapy helps in relaxing muscles and improving ones' posture. This also relieves the pressure on the various nerve points as well as the sciatic nerve. Depending on how acute the pain is as also what stage of treatment one is, there are different massage techniques that one can try.
It is important that the patient and therapist share an open and healthy relationship as a therapist will have to modify his technique depending on how the patient is responding. The patient has to be comfortable with the therapist and stay in a relaxed state of mind during session to allow for the full benefits of the massage. They have to be constantly communicating with each other especially during massage sessions so that the therapist understands if the patient is finding the massage beneficial, if so, what area is it helping and how effective is it. This is true specially, at key points, like in the lower back areas where the therapist may prompt the patient to inform him of how he or she feels. With constant feedback, the therapist may adjust his style as also the technique to better benefit the patient.
Treatment for
is varied. It is only possible to find out what treatment is best for you by going to your doctor for an accurate diagnosis. Your doctor may order an MRI to conclude the exact cause of sciatic pain, although many physicians can determine the cause through physical examination alone.
In addition to pain, you may also experience: ???Numbness or muscle weakness along the nerve pathway in your leg or foot. In some cases, you may have pain in one part of your leg and numbness in another. ???Tingling or a pins-and-needles feeling. This occurs most commonly in your toes or part of your foot. ???A loss of bladder or bowel control. This is a sign of cauda equina syndrome, a rare but serious condition that requires emergency care. If you experience either of these symptoms, seek medical help immediately.
What is Sciatica? The longest nerve in your body, the sciatic nerve runs from your pelvis through your hip area and buttocks and down each leg. It divides into the tibial and peroneal nerves at the level of your knees. The sciatic nerve controls many of the muscles in your lower legs and provides feeling to your thighs, legs and feet.
The most important thing in this regard is taking absolute rest. Apart from these exercises,
can also be cured through different kinds of therapy. One of the most common therapies is chiropractic treatment. Through this treatment, the chiropractor manipulates the different spinal cords and through the external pressure, normalizes the slipped disc. There are different diagnoses, which have been introduced these days for treating slipped disc. However, the most important thing regarding slipped disc or
is prevention. If you are careful about your movement and if you exercise regularly, you can keep yourself away from these physical disorders.
2. A Magnetic therapy pillow pad. If for any reason what so ever you cannot wear a back belt or support the only alternative is to use a pad placed under your back in bed at night. It can also be used during the day when sitting or lying down (even in the car). You will not have 24 hours 7 day a week exposure to the magnets but if you cannot wear a strap this is an acceptable alternative as long as it is used every might when the body is at its most receptive to magnetic healing.
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Proper stretching and exercising, combined with over-the-counter pain medications can assist on the road to recovery. If your pain is not relieved by the milder pain medications, your doctor may prescribe a naroctic analgesic. However be advised that these medications can cause nausea, dizziness, and drowsiness, and may result in dependency if taken over long periods of time. In extreme cases, surgery may be required to remove fragment of the disc.
Usually, the kind of massage you get will depend on the exact cause of your sciatic pain. So, before you start on a massage therapy, meet an expert who will understand your condition better and advise you on what massage techniques will suit you best. Massage therapy usually starts by hands-on assessment of the lower back area and buttock area. The main source of pain is usually the lower back muscles. The therapist will massage the lower back muscles as well as the hip rotators to relax them and bring relief from the pain. The Piriformis muscles are also concentrated on by slowly starting along the sacrum edge. The pressure and technique is adjusted depending on the person and how well he is responding to the massage. At times, such deep massaging is not required and just gentle vibrations on the sacrum and buttock also prove very effective.
The term
refers to pain that radiates along the path of this nerve, from your back into your buttock and leg. The discomfort can range from mild to incapacitating, and may be accompanied by tingling, numbness or muscle weakness. Rather than a disorder in and of itself
is a symptom of another problem that puts pressure on the nerve.
It is important to stay active. Do exercises that develop muscles in your back and stomach. This helps to stablilize your spine. It is also important to maintain a reasonable body weight. Ensure that you practice good posture, and sleep on a mattress that is neither too hard or too soft. You should always discuss health matters with your physician, especially if you suffer progressive weakness, as this may constitute a medical emergency. The problem thought to be something easily treated may be a serious condition caused by the compression of the nerve roots in the lower end ofthe spinal canal, which requires immediate medical attention.
has become a common problem for the people, who are above 50 years. It is because, after 50 years, the spinal cords become very weak and even a minor injury or strain can lead to slipped disc. Apart from that, slipped disc is mainly caused to physical labor, accident or any kind of exhaustion. There are different kinds of diagnosis, which can help in the treatment of
or slipped disc. However, the foremost thing is to undergo an x-ray examination. After examining the x-ray, the physician will ask you to resort to certain exercises, like walking on toes, exercising the spine, bending forward and backward, lying on your back, raising leg.
When magnetic therapy is used in-conjunction with deep penetrating massage and cold/ice therapy, the symptoms of sciatica can be resolved in just a few days. Massage will relax the muscles that have gone into spasm around the trapped nerve, the cold or ice will help reduce the inflammation and heat around the injury and both of these will prepare the tissues and muscles, so that the magnetic field can penetrate more quickly into the damaged area. Massage and ice therapy can be used 3-4 times a day for approximately 10 minutes at a time.
The nervous system of our body mostly depends on the musculoskeletal system. If any kind of displacement occurs in the joints, bones and spines, the nerves, which lie underneath, are compressed. As a result, we suffer immense pain. Moreover, due to this displacement, the vital organs of our body are affected causing disorder. However, one of the most common types of spinal displacements is slipped disc. Actually, slipped disc is caused due to the breaking down of the various circles of connective tissues that bulge out towards the spinal cord. Slipped disc can lead to different kinds of disorders in your body. However, the most common disorder is the compression of the vital nerves, which pass underneath the discs.
is a symptom, which is caused due to the compression of the nerve roots that give rise to the sciatic nerve. It may as well cause due to the compression or irritation of the sciatic nerve itself. The compression is caused mainly due to the slipped disc.
Many people in the world experience sciatica in the form of lower back pain, or pain in the lower parts of the leg and the foot. Sometimes, the pain is too severe and it is accompanied by muscular weakness, difficulty in moving the legs and numbness. Moreover, the
symptom is felt only in one side of the body. Some people do not understand the meaning of sciatica and they tend to take it as a form of diagnosis. The sciatica is caused due to the compression of the lumbar nerves or the sciatic nerves, which is caused due to the herniation of the spinal disc. The spinal discs are composed of rings of cartilage that are spongy. The discs separate the vertebra, which allows room for the roots to protrude through the vertebra and whenever you move, the roots of the nerves are compressed by the spines, causing intolerable pain.
can also be caused by tumors impinging on the spinal cord.
treatment head to: http://www.sciaticatreatment.org today!
Amanda Baker writes for http://tobeinformed.com
What are the signs and symptoms of
? Pain that radiates from your lower (lumbar) spine to your buttock and down the back of your leg is the hallmark of sciatica. You may feel the discomfort almost anywhere along the nerve pathway, but it's especially likely to follow one of these routes: ???From your lower back to your knee. ???From the mid buttock to the outside of your calf, the top of your foot and into the space between your last two toes. ???From the inside of your calf to your inner ankle and sole.
For more resources about slipped disc or even about sciatica please review this website http://www.thrivechiro.com.au
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Guest Host: Chuck Todd
Guests: Richard Engel, Evan Kohlmann, Tyler Mathisen, Chris Cillizza, Ali Suleiman Aujali, James Acton, Liz Sidoti, Ruben Navarrette, David Brooks
CHUCK TODD, GUEST HOST: Who's in charge now?
Let's play HARDBALL.
Good evening. I'm Chuck Todd in Washington, in tonight for Chris Matthews.
Leading off: Now what? There are so many unanswered questions now that NATO is preparing to take over the military campaign against Gadhafi in Libya. How big of a role will the U.S. play now? Are we still in charge? And with war fatigue setting in and criticism coming from both sides of the aisle, when does the president fully explain what's at stake in Libya for the United States? The White House is promising, perhaps, Monday or Tuesday of next week.
Plus, fear of spreading terrorism. There were anti-government demonstrations today, and in some cases violence, in many Arab countries, including Yemen. Thousands turned out, calling for the ouster of a U.S. ally there, that president, Salah. If the president is overthrown, who stops Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula from taking over?
And there are increasing concerns of spreading radiation from the crippled power plant in Japan, with even more people now being encouraged to get out of the area, but not ordered. How great is that danger?
Plus, a little politics. With Hispanics now making up one of our every six Americans—and one out of every four children, by the way—how long can Republicans be seen as hostile to their interests? The huge implications of the census report on the 2012 presidential election.
And finally, what's the more serious candidates to do? How does anyone who actually believes they have a chance of winning the Republican nomination get heard if people like Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin, and yes, even the idea of Donald Trump end up sucking up all the oxygen? We're going to start with that with David Brooks later.
But we start with what's next on the Libyan front. NBC chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel is in Benghazi after a harrowing couple of days covering this war in Libya. And Richard, what happened today on the ground that you've seen?
RICHARD ENGEL, NBC CORRESPONDENT: Today, we went out of Benghazi. And instead of going to the rebel front line, about 100 miles south of here, we went to the rebel front line and then went around it, and we were able to get inside the city of Ajdabia. Ajdabia is partially held by Gadhafi forces and partially held by the rebels themselves.
There is street-to-street fighting in the city. And in a way, this is progress because the rebels would not have been able to get this far if Gadhafi's forces hadn't been significantly weakened by the Western air strikes. There's new video today of a British air strike on Gadhafi's tanks just outside of Ajdabia.
So the Western and now NATO, or I guess U.S., offensive against Gadhafi's army is making an impact on the ground, but it is not very quick-moving. The rebels are in the city, they are fighting, but street-to-street fighting takes a long time, Chuck.
TODD: What's unclear now is who makes up the opposition? Who is the leader of the opposition? There's going to be some representative in London, I'm told, over the weekend for this conference with NATO. But there was also supposed to be some representatives of the opposition at an African Union meeting, where supposedly, Gadhafi was also going to send representatives. What can you tell me about that?
ENGEL: The rebel leaders we've spoken to—and these are both on the political side and on the military side. The military side aren't involved in any of these discussions. There is a political leadership, and they're very wary of entering into any kind of dialogue or negotiations with Gadhafi. They simply don't trust Gadhafi. They think anything he's offering could be a trick, something that could used against them. Gadhafi was even offering to send 2,000 people here to Benghazi as a peace offering, carrying, literally, olive branches. And the people of Benghazi said, We don't even want them in the city, we don't want them near the city because who knows what they might do.
So there is an opposition. They would much rather talk to NATO. They'd much rather talk directly to France, Europe, the United States and not to Gadhafi directly because they don't trust his motives.
TODD: All right, I want to talk to you about two other countries where things heated up today. One, Yemen, we've been tracking for a while. But I want to talk to you about Syria because a few days ago, when we hear about this—these protests in Syria, I had some people say, You know what? This just—this is a—this is a regime that knows how to crack down in brutal ways. This won't be a serious uprising. And yet today, reports were this was a pretty serious uprising.
ENGEL: People used to say the same thing about Egypt. Oh, it could never happen because the Egyptian security forces are so good. There are a lot of parallels between Egypt and Syria, and I've always thought that Syria was conspicuously quiet in all of this.
Syria has a regime that is very similar to Egypt's, perhaps more tightly controlling, a one-family dynasty that the son isn't nearly as powerful or as charismatic or brutal as the father. People don't feel that they have political rights and political freedoms. They have an educated population. They have an urbanized population. And these are all the symptoms that have proven to be so explosive and successful in Arab revolutions—educated people, no expression, urbanized population, family dynasty going back decades. And Syria has all of those characteristics, and there are indications that it will continue to spread in Syria.
TODD: Explain the game. I had somebody say to me, if Syria—as important as Egypt was in creating this potential for a domino effect, I had somebody argue to me that Syria would actually be a bigger deal than Egypt. Explain what you think that person meant to me by that.
ENGEL: Different dynamics. Egypt is an enormous Arab country. In many ways, it is the symbol, it is the capital of the Arab world. The Arab League is there. Everyone around the region watches Egyptian movies. Everyone speaks or is familiar with the Egyptian dialect of Arabic. So what happens in Egypt, so goes the rest of the region.
Syria is strategic for many reasons. It is the channel for weapons into Lebanon for Hezbollah. It is a bridge to Iran. It is—it's traditionally been a stalwart enemy of Israel. So the—the dynamic—I guess you could call it the Arab/Israeli dynamic, which is always an explosive one, is much more impacted by the events in Syria. And it wouldn't—I would also watch the connections between Syria and Hezbollah and Syria and Hamas. And there are many senior Hamas leaders who live in Syria.
TODD: Right, live in Damascus, yes.
ENGEL: And you could—it wouldn't be—it wouldn't be surprising to see an uprising or more activity from Hamas, more activity in Gaza or explosions in Israel itself to try and deflect some of the pressure off of the Syrian regime. So it's strategic because of those kind of relations. Egypt is strategic because it is just the homeland, the home address of the Arab world.
TODD: All right, Richard Engel, our chief foreign correspondent in Benghazi. I wish we could clone you sometimes. I'd like to have you in Damascus right now, as well—
ENGEL: I'd like to be there. It's—I can't believe the region.
I've never seen it like this.
TODD: Unbelievable. And you're doing great work. Thank you.
All right, White House press secretary Jay Carney announced today that President Obama will address the country on the status of the mission in Libya. We're not sure how or when that will take place. It may or may not be in primetime, more than likely probably Monday or Tuesday of next week.
But we're going to talk about the political implications and why he's doing that, so we're going to turn to our MSNBC political analyst and the Washingtonpost.com's Postpolitics managing editor and all-around guru, Chris Cillizza. Chris—
CHRIS CILLIZZA, WASHINGTONPOST.COM, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes?
TODD: -- the political problem that is facing this White House regarding Libya is something that seemed to catch them a little bit off guard.
CILLIZZA: It did, which is kind of strange in that they know—it's
not as though they think Congress is particularly friendly to them. They
know the Republicans seem (ph) to control Congress. Now, the partisan
dealings of these sorts of foreign involvements are different than domestic
you know, economy, health care. We kind of know where everyone's going to shake out there.
But there was this bipartisan resistance. You had Jim Webb, a Democrat from Virginia, you had Dick Lugar, a Republican from Indiana. And I think it's both the bipartisan nature of the resistance in wanting a bigger explanation, as well as kind of the—I don't know what other word to use other than anger, though that's probably not the word that John Boehner would use, but that letter that he wrote to President Obama was—he was clearly miffed (INAUDIBLE) consulted enough, want more information. You know, these are things that the president does not want to hear.
TODD: Where did the White House miss the signals? You and I were talking earlier. Could it be when they saw John Kerry and John McCain—
TODD: Right!
TODD: -- on the same side of this, both calling for this no-fly zone, that they said to themselves, OK, we've got Congress covered, we've got to deal with this trip, frankly, we got to figure out how to get more Arab nations. I mean, they had a lot of fires going on—
CILLIZZA: I was just going to say—
TODD: -- that they were trying to deal with, and they thought, Jeez, McCain and Kerry, there's our cover, Congress, box check.
CILLIZZA: I was just—you stole my box check metaphor! That's exactly it. You know, look, a lot goes into this at any time, forget when you're about to leave for Latin America on a trip that's long been scheduled. So yes, I'm sure they did—I guess (INAUDIBLE) due diligence, but they certainly did some diligence in Congress, to your point with McCain and Kerry and said, What would you think of this?
The hard thing is, Congress is a tough beast to predict, and I think what happened—you were on the trip—I think things got a little bit away from them. And it's very difficult for the president to control message when he's in a foreign country. It's just very—it's hard—the perception is hard. It's hard for him to give a big speech about another country when he's in Latin America.
So I think, to your point about a speech early next week—I've heard the same thing—
TODD: Right.
CILLIZZA: -- Monday and Tuesday, the goal being, Wrap this up. You know, it's the old, Good morning, good afternoon, good night—
TODD: Right.
CILLIZZA: -- you know, the three strikes rule. Say why we got in, what we did, and why we're out. That's the goal—
TODD: And it's already worked.
CILLIZZA: And the question is, will they be able to say it's already worked?
TODD: Well, today the president briefed the relevant members of Congress, leadership, heads of the key committees, and we'll obviously find out in the next 48 hours how well that briefing went.
CILLIZZA: Maybe 24 hours.
TODD: But it is the first time the president has updated members.
Now, Congress has been on recess.
CILLIZZA: Yes.
TODD: We do know that Gates and Clinton could go to the Hill and testify next week. We assume we'll have this presidential remarks. But I want to throw one other thing in here. Have they underestimated war fatigue?
CILLIZZA: Yes.
TODD: You're poll, the ABC/"Washington Post" poll, boy, was just a stinging reminder about Afghanistan.
CILLIZZA: Lowest numbers ever in our poll for Afghanistan last week. You know, again, we were talking about this earlier. I think a lot of what you see here is, in the post-Vietnam era, there is almost no patience for foreign involvement by the United States unless it's like Gulf war 1 -- it begins, you know, in late January, it ends in early February, we're done and we're out. The Obama administration is hoping that they can do that with Libya. The problem—and—
TODD: Not even a week.
CILLIZZA: -- Chuck, you know this better than I, though. When you're in a foreign country, when you're entangled with a coalition of people, it is not so easy to say, We're out, we won, walk away. Just ask George W. Bush about "mission accomplished." I mean, we know how that turned out.
TODD: All right. Chris Cillizza, Postpolitics.com, "Washington Post," every other title I will mention (INAUDIBLE) get it right.
CILLIZZA: You got a whole show.
TODD: Mr. Fick (ph). Thanks very much.
Coming up: What do we know about Moammar Gadhafi? Will he fight or flee? And who are the rebels that the no-fly zone is essentially helping out? Big questions. We're going to get some answers from the former Libyan ambassador to the United States, who broke with the Gadhafi regime early on.
You're watching HARDBALL, only on MSNBC.
TODD: Well, the world is giving high marks to America's leaders. Check this out. According to a new Gallup poll, U.S. leaders are doing a better job than those in other world powers. Forty-seven percent of people in more than 100 countries say they approved of the job performance of, quote, "American leaders," versus 25 percent who disapproved. Germany finished second, followed by France, Japan, the UK and China. Russia was the only country on the list whose leaders were upside-down on approval, 27 percent versus 31 percent. And a historical note, back in 2008, before President Obama took office, the United States was in sixth place.
We'll be right back.
TODD: Welcome back to HARDBALL. What do we really know about the rebels who are taking on Colonel Gadhafi? In the past, rebels we've supported one day have become our enemies the next. Think Afghanistan. One person who knows all about our new allies is Ali Suleiman Aujali, who recently resigned as the Libyan ambassador to the United States. He is now supporting the opposition.
Mr. Ambassador, welcome.
TODD: So let me—let me ask you, who is the opposition? Tell us who they are. And should the United States, who has stopped short of recognizing them, recognize them as the official leadership of Libya?
AUJALI: Well, the opposition, they are—they are (INAUDIBLE) Libyan who raised against the regime. They are doctors. They are professors They are student. They are lawyer. They are normal people in Libya who've been suffering for the last 42 years. Then they are not al Qaeda, what the regime tried to describe them.
TODD: Right.
AUJALI: If there's al Qaeda, then the regime is responsible for them that they are in the country. But the Libyan people, they raised against the regime peacefully. Unfortunately, they've been killed by the—by mercenaries. Then, for example, the chair of the council, Mr. Abdul Jalil, he was a former justice minister. He's very known in Libya. He's a very capable man. He's very decent man. And Dr. Mahmoud Jibril, he's a professor. He's working in—before, in the gulf area, in the gulf countries.
TODD: Right.
AUJALI: And he'd been brought by son of Gadhafi to reform Libya and -
TODD: Right.
AUJALI: Yes.
TODD: Let me ask you about Gadhafi. You said in a previous interview you did not believe he would flee, that he would die on Libyan soil, that he didn't want to face the threat of the courts. Is there no safe haven in the world he could flee to, in your mind?
AUJALI: Well, I think it's not matter of the safe haven. I think the problem—the problem of Gadhafi's mentality. Gadhafi believe until now that the people likes him, the people—
TODD: He really thought the people supported him?
AUJALI: That's what he believed.
TODD: He really believes it.
AUJALI: Yes, that's what he believe. He living in different world, I believe.
TODD: Right.
AUJALI: Then he touched—he lost the touch with reality. Libyan people, they offer him a safe exit. But until now, we don't see anything (INAUDIBLE). I have heard, like many others—
TODD: Right.
AUJALI: -- that there is maybe a chance for him to negotiate, and President Sarkozy of France, he mentioned something that Britain and France they're working towards peaceful solution. That's what we want. Libyan people, they want to get rid of him because if he is there, there is nobody secure. The problem is not the army, the problem is Gadhafi—
TODD: Right.
AUJALI: -- that if you want to save Libyan civilian, then Gadhafi must go.
TODD: You believe if you cut off—in this case, if you cut off the head, if Gadhafi goes, all of his troops, either the ones that are Libyan join the—join the opposition—
AUJALI: Of course.
TODD: -- and the ones that aren't, they disappear.
AUJALI: Of course. As far as Gadhafi, there is danger there. If Gadhafi is be removed, then we will be able to get together again and we will be able to—
TODD: This is not about a regime, this is one person.
AUJALI: One person. One person, and the close alliance to him who used them killer to kill Libyan people inside Libya and outside Libya. And not only Libyan people are victim, Western are victim, too.
TODD: Right.
AUJALI: You see the terrorist action in Germany—
TODD: Right.
AUJALI: -- and in Britain and many different places.
TODD: I want to play you something that Secretary Clinton said last night about NATO, and I want to get your response to it. Here's what she said.
HILLARY CLINTON, SECRETARY OF STATE: In the days ahead, as NATO assumes command and control responsibilities, the welfare of those civilians will be of paramount concern. This operation has already saved many lives, but the danger is far from over. As long as the Gadhafi regime threatens its people and defies the United Nations, we must remain vigilant and focused.
TODD: This operation specifically does not target Gadhafi. Should it?
AUJALI: Well, I think if this operation is target Gadhafi forces,
then the Libyan people know how to deal with Gadhafi. The main threat to -
TODD: You believe the Libyan people can handle Gadhafi.
AUJALI: Of course.
TODD: As long as they have the protective military cover.
AUJALI: That's right, because the force is not equal. Gadhafi has professional soldier. He has the latest technology.
TODD: Right.
AUJALI: The people who are forced to fight him, they have the traditional weapons.
And even the range of weapons is completely different. How can they fight? They need the help of the international community. And this is a historical chance to get rid of this man. This man, he has no place on the Earth as far as believe—we are concerned.
And the Libyan people, they will not go back, they will not negotiate.
There is no negotiation, only for safe exit for him, if he wants to go. But, otherwise, if the world left—leave Gadhafi in power or leave him behind, believe me, the Western countries, they will suffer more than the Libyans --
TODD: All right.
AUJALI: -- because he's a man of revenge. He will never forgive.
TODD: Ambassador Ali Suleiman Aujali, thanks for coming in. And best to you and your family and the brave people that you represent.
AUJALI: Thank you very much. Thank you. I appreciate it.
TODD: All right, and now from Libyan to Yemen, where anti-government protests continue, despite President Ali Abdullah Saleh's announcing that he will step down if the government is left to what he calls trustful hands.
So, what's next for that country and the threat that Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula poses there?
Evan Kohlmann is an NBC terrorist analyst.
Evan, I have got to ask you, if Saleh goes—
EVAN KOHLMANN, NBC NEWS TERRORISM ANALYST: Yes.
TODD: -- who replaces him? And what does that mean for the U.S. counterterrorism operations that take place in Yemen, frankly, every day?
KOHLMANN: Well, there is the very optimistic way of looking at this, which is that, well, eventually this might lead to pro-democracy movements and maybe a democratic government. But I just think that is a naive way to look at things.
Right now, the major opposition is being led by a guy by named Ali al-Ahmar, who is known to be sympathetic to Islamist movements. In fact, he's known to be associated with the people that formed the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army, which was the precursor to al Qaeda in Yemen.
And he's someone that I don't think we can necessarily count on in order to really be aggressive against AQAP. The reality is, is, right now in Yemen, large parts of Yemen are out of the control of Yemeni security forces, including key areas the AQAP is inhabiting.
As far as we understand it, there may be actually areas where petroleum production has been entirely shut down. So, I—right now, the picture is very negative, is very pessimistic. And we have got to—you have got to wonder what's going to happen next there. Who is going to follow Ali Abdullah Saleh?
TODD: But tell me—tell me this. So, if the American government, who obviously has a relationship with Saleh—
KOHLMANN: Yes.
TODD: -- that is enough so that they feel as if they're—they're able to deal with the—the roughest parts of AQAP—
KOHLMANN: Yes.
TODD: -- if the U.S. government doesn't look like it's fully behind a reform movement—
KOHLMANN: Right.
TODD: -- doesn't that potentially radicalize AQAP even more and give them—give them new recruits among people that want Saleh to go?
KOHLMANN: Yes, I think that's an obvious point, the idea that, look, if the Yemeni people don't have a democratic outlet for their anti-government sentiments, that they might turn to al Qaeda.
The problem, though, is Yemen is not Kansas, Yemen is not Texas, and it's not Egypt either. Yemen is a very complicated country that is torn apart by a number of different, as you call it, fissures, everything from tribal fissures, religious fissures. There is Shiite-Sunni rifts. There's rifts between the tribes.
TODD: Right.
KOHLMANN: There's rifts between the North and South Yemen.
It isn't as simple as democracy and autocracy.
TODD: Right.
KOHLMANN: And I—I don't think that simply removing Ali Abdullah Saleh, you're going to simply immediately transition into a democratic government. I think—as attractive as that sounds, I just think—
TODD: Right.
KOHLMANN: -- that's terribly naive.
TODD: All right, there is—there's reality and there's what the U.S. wishes it could have there. So the reality is, it's going to be dealing with some disparate group of leaders in the coming months in Yemen.
KOHLMANN: I think the—
TODD: I mean, that seems pretty obvious.
KOHLMANN: Yes.
TODD: How do you do that? How does it complicate this counterinsurgency?
KOHLMANN: Well, look, I mean—
TODD: This counterterrorism?
KOHLMANN: Look, the U.S. is launching drone strikes in Yemen right now. We're trying to pursue American operatives who are over there and other Western operators. We know the AQAP right now is planning operations targeting the continental United States.
If we have a regime that is less friendly, that is less cooperative,, well, look, I mean, this is exactly what happened back in 2000 after the Cole bombing. And that's exactly why there's an al Qaeda network there today.
I think we have to be very concerned about this. There's been a lot of attention paid to Libya in the last few days. I don't think nearly enough is being paid to Yemen.
TODD: All right.
Evan Kohlmann, NBC terrorism analyst, thanks for joining us today on
KOHLMANN: Thank you.
TODD: All right.
Up next: the troubling news out of Japan, where that damaged reactor core may have been breached. It could mean much larger amounts of radiation are already leaking out. We're going to get the latest on that crisis when we return.
You're watching HARDBALL, only on MSNBC.
TODD: Welcome back to HARDBALL.
Let's go to another continent. The radiation leak in Japan's crippled nuclear reactor could signal that the reactor core has been breached, although it's still unclear where the radiation is leaking from.
Today's news is certainly another setback in efforts to get the nuclear plant under control. Also today, the Japanese government said that people living up to 19 miles from the reactor site should consider a voluntary evacuation. Earlier, they had suggested people in that zone just stay indoors.
So, how bad is it?
James Acton is the associate with the nuclear program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. And he joins us now.
James, let me start with the evacuation notice. It's still voluntary.
Is the Japanese government making a mistake here by making it voluntary?
Why say, you probably should go, but not make it mandatory?
Chuck, I think what is important to understand about the position of the Japanese government is, is there's already 500,000 displaced people in Japan. They have been hit by a massive earthquake.
TODD: Right.
ACTON: They have been hit by a massive tsunami.
And there are real costs to evacuating more people, costs to those people. I mean, if you're an evacuee from that region, you're going to be going to a sport hall with inadequate sanitation—
TODD: Right.
ACTON: -- with inadequate food, with inadequate water.
So the Japanese government, because it's been hit by this triple catastrophe—
TODD: So, you're saying this would be mandatory if they had the room?
ACTON: I'm saying they absolutely have to factor in the fact—
TODD: Right.
ACTON: -- they have 500,000 people who are already displaced.
And I don't know whether they have made exactly the right call. I don't know whether the zone should be 20 miles, or 25 miles, or 15 miles.
TODD: Sure.
ACTON: What I'm saying is, the terrible state that Japan has been hit after this triple whammy has to feature in their calculations.
TODD: All right, this new radiation—
ACTON: Mm-hmm.
TODD: -- at this point—and we already know about the workers that -
that at this point are incredibly ill.
ACTON: Yes.
TODD: Does this mean all work stops again? If this regulation leak has happened, there's nothing that could be done while they're trying to get this reactor back under control?
ACTON: Well, based on the latest information that I have, the radiation levels on the site as a whole are not increasing right now., which is actually very good news.
There is locally very high levels of radiations in the basement of the turbine hull of reactor three, which is—
TODD: So, the one where they think it's leaking out of?
ACTON: Yes.
ACTON: Which is—which is—which is the place where the workers stumbled into this highly radioactive water.
TODD: Right.
ACTON: And I have also heard it reported, but I haven't had this confirmed yet—I simply don't know if this is right—that there is similarly highly radioactive water in the basement of the turbine hulls of units one and two.
ACTON: Now, work in those areas is clearly going to be massively hampered, if not stopped entirely.
TODD: Mm-hmm.
ACTON: But if radiation levels on the site as a whole don't rise, then work across the site can presumably continue.
TODD: If you can't do any work in these three reactors, if this is—if what the information we're getting and—and work basically gets hampered or haltered or halted completely, what does that mean for the likelihood that you could—we could end up with a full meltdown?
ACTON: It's not entirely clear to me exactly whether the reason they were laying power lines into the basement of the turbine hulls was for crucial cooling systems. You know, just details of the plant schematics that you would need to answer that question are not available at the moment.
But I think it's fair to say they would not have been laying these cables if it wasn't—if they didn't consider it highly important to do so.
TODD: And at what point do we think they can get this under control if they can get back to work? Are we still a couple—are we still—are we weeks away?
ACTON: Potentially.
TODD: Are we months away?
ACTON: Potentially. I mean, the answer is, you know, this was a news story that was dying over the last few days, but the almost unanimous consent of the expert community was, we weren't out of the woods yet. These—this is still a volatile situation. It's still a dangerous situation. It's still a situation that could change on a day-by-day basis.
There's no obvious time frame for ending this. This is a crisis that could drag on for weeks longer. It could be over in days. It could drag on for weeks. It could even go on for a month or two.
TODD: All right, James Acton of the Carnegie Endowment for Peace, thanks very much.
ACTON: Thank you.
TODD: We look forward to, unfortunately, seeing you on our programs all over the place. You have been very helpful. Thanks very much.
ACTON: Thank you.
TODD: Up next: another feud for Sarah Palin. Ready for this one?
It's with Bill Maher. That's ahead in the "Sideshow."
You're watching HARDBALL, only on MSNBC.
TYLER MATHISEN, CNBC CORRESPONDENT: And good afternoon. I'm Tyler Mathisen with your CNBC "Market Wrap."
Stocks ending higher today, despite all the global concerns of mixed economic news here at home, the Dow Jones industrials up 50 points. S&P 500 added 4, Nasdaq tacking on 6.5, a good day all around.
The markets looked surprisingly resilient this week, with investors shrugging off jitters about Mideast unrest, European debt, and of course the nuclear crisis in Japan—volume, however, extremely light. Next week could be a different story, as we get info on income and spending, home and auto sales, and jobs numbers for the month. That's the biggie next Friday.
Today, we heard about a big drop in U.S. consumer sentiment. It plunged 10 points in February on growing concerns about inflation. Banks were mostly higher, despite some reservations about hefty dividends OKed by the Fed after the latest round of stress tests.
And BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion shares continue to tumble big-time on a weak outlook and a couple of analyst downgrades.
That's it from CNBC, first in business worldwide—now back to
TODD: Well, the news has been heavy, so let's do a little light stuff back here at HARDBALL. Time for the "Sideshow."
First up: Michele Bachmann deja vu. Remember the congresswoman's much-talked about State of the Union response, the one where she seemed to be looking at the wrong camera the whole time? Oh, did I just do that, too?
Well, yesterday, amid all the 2012 buzz, Bachmann hosted an hour-long town hall on Facebook. The production value—well, let's just say it wasn't quite yet presidential campaign material.
REP. MICHELE BACHMANN ®, MINNESOTA: Thank you to all of our Facebook fans for participating today. I apologize for the noise in the background. This is live in Des Moines. That waterfall noise that you're hearing in the background.
TODD: I don't see a waterfall. I saw a sneeze guard in the background.
Anyway, waterfall noise (INAUDIBLE) a term for audio trouble. We have not used that one before. Maybe we will.
Next up, here's a good one. There she goes again. Sarah Palin famously took on David Letterman over his joke about her teenage daughter. Well, Palin's latest target, "Real Time" host Bill Maher. He called her something we can't repeat on television.
Well, the governor hit back on Facebook yesterday—quote—"I have been inundated with requests to respond to petty comments made in the media in the past few days, including one little fella's comment which decent people would find degrading. I won't bother responding to it, though, because it was made by he who reminds me of an annoying little mosquito found zipped up in your tent. He can't do any arm, but buzzes around annoyingly, until it's time to give him the proverbial slap."
Huh. But she did respond to this annoying little mosquito.
Well, we're going to ask Maher to respond to that comment here on HARDBALL next Tuesday. By the way, Bill Maher still has a show tonight. That should be an interesting little new rule that he may come up with.
Finally, the name game: The White House has painstakingly avoided the word war to describe the situation in Libya. On my other show, I call this WashSpeak.
Just check out the dance from Deputy NSA Adviser Ben Rhodes when pressed on this point on war—quote—"I think what we are doing is enforcing a resolution that has a very clear set of goals, which is protecting the Libyan people, averting a humanitarian crisis, setting up a no-fly zone. And, obviously, that involves kinetic military action, particularly on the front end."
"Kinetic military action," believe it or not, the term may be catching on, because what's the new hands-free Xbox? It's Kinect. "Kinetic military action"—all right.
Now time for the "Big Number."
"The New York Times" just came out with its list of the most followed personalities on Twitter. So, where does our president, leader of the free world, come in, Mr. Social Networking himself? Only at number four. Who is he behind? Britney Spears, the Bieber, and, number one, Lady Gaga.
President Obama, who does have his own poker face, the number-four most-followed Twitter account, tonight's not-so "Big Number."
I will take some more Twitter followers, too, @chucktodd. I'm just saying.
Up next: New census data shows one in six Americans are of Hispanic descent. That's a 32 percent increase from a decade ago. Hispanic voters right now are tending to favor the Democrats. So, how does this demographic shift change the political landscape in this country? We're going to get into that.
This is HARDBALL, only on MSNBC.
TODD: Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords continues to make process as she recovers from being shot in the head. Her colleague Shelley Berkley of Nevada visited her at her Houston hospital and says Giffords can conduct normal conversations, though she speaks just a bit slowly. Giffords is hoping to watch her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, blast off on the second to last space shuttle mission next month.
This is HARDBALL. We'll be right back after this.
TODD: Well, we are back.
New census numbers show enormous growth in the U.S. Hispanic population in the last 10 years. This is not shocking, but the numbers still are astonishing. Hispanics are now 16.3 percent of the U.S. population, more than 50 million Hispanics in total. The population grew 43 percent since 2000. There are 1 million or more Hispanics now in eight states. And there are now 14 million in California alone.
The other seven states with a million or more Hispanics: Texas, Florida, New York, Illinois, New Jersey, and, of course, Arizona and Colorado—two potential truly spring states, including Florida, of course.
So, what does this mean for Republicans and Democrats? And where will it matter most going into the 2012 elections?
Liz Sidoti covers politics for the "Associated Press" and Ruben Navarrette is a syndicated columnist with "The San Diego Union Tribune."
And, Ruben, let me start with you. You're in California, 14 million Hispanics. You're the Republican Party today. If you're Reince Priebus, he's the chairman of the Republican Party, you've been watching these demographic numbers—I mentioned those eight states. I didn't start talking about what's going on in the Deep South, which is a whole other story.
What do—how bad is—could this be for Republicans if they're continued to be seen negatively by Hispanics overall?
RUBEN NAVARRETTE, THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE: Chuck, let me just note one thing, I'm with "The Washington Post" writers group, and from perch there at "The Washington Post" writers group in Washington, I see this story playing out very significantly—bad news for the Republicans across the board in all the states you mentioned and in other states because they're perceived as being anti-Hispanic.
But while it's bad news, very bad news for Republicans, it also sort of bad news for Democrats because the support for Democrats and Barack Obama among Hispanics is like a mile wide and an inch deep. They're very much disillusioned with this administration. The big question is not whether you get defections to Republicans. That's not going to happen. But if they just shrug and stay home and not vote—that's bad news for the White House.
That's the real game, I think. It's a way—that's why you see the president trying so hard to energize that base because he knows that he's very weak on that bench.
TODD: All right. But, Ruben, who is the leading Hispanic in the Obama White House?
NAVARRETTE: The leading—let me think about that.
TODD: I know. I know. I mean, that's the point.
NAVARRETTE: That's one of the points—it's one of the points, Chuck. It's also the fact that they keep going around the country bragging about how many they deport. They fortified the border. They're trying to out-enforce the Republicans. It's just a bad look all the way around.
TODD: All right. Liz Sidoti, you know, one of the more fascinating statistics of the 2008 campaign is that if no Hispanics had voted in the state of North Carolina, John McCain would have carried North Carolina. Because of the Hispanic vote, it is why Obama carried North Carolina. That is one of the eight states we just talked about.
This—there is a new South, if you will, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia. We think with the South, the Deep South, we think Florida and Texas. This is a big story enough.
LIZ SIDOTI, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS: Yes, I've got to tell you. This is a real problem for Republicans. But let's look backwards a little bit. In 2000, you know, George Bush really made inroads with Hispanics and didn't win—
TODD: Out of necessity.
SIDOTI: Right, correct.
TODD: And also comfort.
SIDOTI: Correct.
TODD: As governor of—a basically majority—almost a majority of Hispanics—
SIDOTI: Of course. But didn't win Hispanics, but made enough inroads that he was able to win because of support among Hispanics. So, the opposite was true, then. But since then, Republicans have all but ceded Hispanics to Democrats. There really isn't a huge effort out there on the Republican side to win what obviously is going to be the—not just the largest minority group now, but it's growing and growing and growing and growing. They're political players, they're power houses.
The Republicans have to figure out a way to bring some of them into their fold. Whether that means, you know, putting a Marco Rubio or putting a Brian Sandoval, or putting a Susana Martinez on the ticket in 2012. I mean, those are real possibilities. They've got to do something to stop this trend.
TODD: Ruben, if you're Mitt Romney and you're the eventual Republican nominee and you don't put one of those three Republicans on the ticket—aren't you almost guaranteeing that you've made your path to 270 so narrow that you have no margin for error?
NAVARRETTE: Yes, I think that's absolutely right. And, you know, think of it another way. In order for a Republican to do well with Hispanics, they've got to get 35 percent of the Hispanic vote or north of that.
Bush in 2000, got 35 percent. Four years later, he blew the doors up the place at 44 percent. But if Mitt Romney or whoever the nominee is, if they don't get at least 35 percent of the Hispanic vote, it's sort of game over. They've got—they've got to have a nice, decent showing in there.
The way to do that if I were talking to Mitt Romney is you can have a
nice, strong support of borders and security and immigration policy, and
all that. Law and order's a good thing, that's great. But just really
take out that anti-Hispanic component, that nativism component that's so
incredibly repellant that it has turned off even conservative Republicans -
even Hispanic Republicans can't get excited about the Republican Party these days.
TODD: You know, Ruben brought up a good point, though, about the Obama administration. We've been talking about this as Republicans. But they have struggled reaching out to Hispanics in a way that there is—
I've had some Hispanic Democrats say to me, I don't even know who I'm supposed to pick up the phone to. Nobody contacts me, you know? They're not—and as he brought up, they're not going to go to the Republicans. They might just not go out and knock any doors.
SIDOTI: Look, this is a—this is a fickle group. And it's changing. And so, I think nobody really knows exactly how to harness the Hispanic vote, court them, reject them, and keep them in their fold. I mean, what Hispanics have proven is that they're fickle. And their opinions are changing.
I don't think you can any more say that all Hispanics feel this way or stereotype and such given the explicit growth of their children. You know, first generation Hispanics, who have grown up and were born and raised here, different opinions.
TODD: No, that's very important—
NAVARRETTE: They're not just fickle. It's also a question about really steep learning curve with regard with the parties, Chuck.
TODD: Right.
NAVARRETTE: The fact is neither one of these parties knows how to reach out to Hispanics. There are people who know how to do it, but they're not being included in the mix.
TODD: No. Liz Sidoti of the "Associated Press," Ruben Navarrette, "Washington Post" writers group and "San Diego Union-Tribune" I will get both plugs in there—thank you both on this. It's a topic I think we're going to be talking about a lot.
SIDOTI: Thank you.
TODD: All right. Coming up: Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin and Donald Trump, what if they suck up all the oxygen to the point where the other Republican presidential contenders, you know, the guys like Pawlenty and Romney, can't even break through? "The New York Times" columnist David Brooks will be here with us to talk about that. His perspective will be fascinating.
You're watching HARDBALL, only on MSNBC.
TODD: We are back.
The Republican presidential field for 2012 is slowly taking shape. Several of them are going to be in Iowa tomorrow for another one of these cattle calls. The state senior Republican Chuck Grassley said this, said, there's "only two or three of them that are qualified to be president." They got a heck of a lot more to run.
And is it bad for Republicans that people like Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin and Donald Trump are going to suck up all the oxygen out of the room?
"New York Times" columnist David Brooks—he is the author of the new book called, "The Social Animal."
And I tell you, David, when you saw the one—you know, "The Hidden Sources of Love, Character and Achievement," we easily threw that in a presidential primary in trying to figure out some of the mind games that some of these candidates are playing.
But let's start with that—Bachmann, Trump, Palin. They're the cable catnip. They're the media's catnip. What do you do if you're Romney and Pawlenty when you're dealing with that?
DAVID BROOKS, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Just try to stay ahead of that circus. Yes, and I think it will be easy, actually, you know? You've got to distinguish between the conservative media industry and the people who are actually running for office. And there's been very little evidence, I think, in past elections that one has really affected the other. So, for example, Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin and a lot of the conservative radio jocks spent two years attacking John McCain.
TODD: Right.
BROOKS: And yet, John McCain still won the South Carolina Republican primary, the Florida Republican primary. One Republican consultant once told me, Rush Limbaugh can't deliver a pizza.
TODD: Right.
BROOKS: And so, people like listening to Rush, they like listening to that stuff. But it doesn't really affect how they vote. They want somebody who they can plausibly see as president.
TODD: But it does seem this is progressively getting more and more of a powerful voice. And then this idea that you can run for president as a money-making venture sort of takes the whole Andy Warhol aspect of this. Everybody gets their 15 minutes where John Bolton is thinking about running for president, right? And he's—is he thinking about running for president or is he thinking about getting a better TV contract or a better book deal? Mike Huckabee became a multimillionaire after running for president.
BROOKS: Yes. We've got to start punishing people who run for no reason. I don't know how we can do that. We can exile them to some desert island for a year.
But yes, that's the thing—it's like a no loss situation. Some people, their reputation gets hurt, but, you know, maybe Alan Keyes. But he was on the self-destruction express anyway.
But for most people, it's good for business. And somehow, people who organized the debates and maybe those of us in the media have got to just pay a lot more attention to people who are plausible. And I agree with Grassley. I really think it's down to two, three—maybe three and a half.
TODD: Well, when you say that, the three and a half, I assume the half means it's Mitch Daniels who you've been wanting to see get in. I know you've written about that. But he's showing no evidence that he's going to run.
BROOKS: Yes, and my heart still beats, you know? And I think, for the Republicans, he's a good—he's not the most sexy guy in the world, but he's a good manager. I'm insanely impressed by the fact that he took the Department of Motor Vehicles wait times down from about an hour to seven minutes. I think the country would like a leader who could do that sort of thing.
Actually, my half is for Haley Barbour.
TODD: You don't believe he runs?
BROOKS: I think he runs, I just not sure he's going to be plausible for people—you know, my joke, it's a little unfair, is that he's the kind of guy Michael Moore would cast as the Republican nominee. And so, I think—he's been a very good governor. But for background reasons, I'm not sure he's really a plausible nominee, despite his personal talents.
TODD: It's funny you said. I have visions of Phil Gramm in my head, right? All the operation in the world, all of the smart people, the smart money, and yet, when the stump speech, I feel a person of the third and the seventh grade—it didn't quite work.
Let's go to your book "The Social Animal" because we're now seeing a lot of—and you've done a lot of writing about sort of how the brain works and how it makes us do certain things or make choices. So, apply it to politics, apply to ideology.
BROOKS: Yes. So, all our choices—whether we fall in love or select a candidate. Some of it is conscious and some of it is unconscious. And, so, for example, some research at Princeton, they gave people a one-second look at candidates in races far from where they live. And they said, you're looking at these people for one second, who do you think is more competent? And those people could predict with 70 percent accuracy who is going to win that election. So, we make these snap judgments about people—
TODD: But did they pick competent people? Did they actually pick competent people?
BROOKS: Yes. And this is the thing—Americans aren't really knowledgeable about a lot of facts. Often in government, they think foreign aid takes up 25 percent of the budget.
TODD: Right.
BROOKS: But what do we do every day? We check out the competence of the dentist, of the plumber, of the teacher. We're actually reasonably good at looking at people and making evaluations. Is this person like me? Do I trust this?
And those evaluations are mostly unconscious—just a feeling of how I feel good. And what the scientists are now doing is looking and figuring out how does all that happen and the book is really an explication of all that.
TODD: And applying it a little bit more to the presidential primary season, let me ask you this: do you think it's better—even though we make these short judgments—is it better if the season is short or long, as far as trying to decide who the Republican nominee is this time?
BROOKS: It's better if it's long I think for all of us. We make very quick judgments, but one of the ways we educate our emotional reactions toward people is overtime. And so, people who have studied something.
There are soldiers in Iraq—they can look down a street after having served there for a year and they can tell whether there's a land mine on the street. They don't know how they can tell, they just feel a coldness inside. And that sort of unconscious expertise doesn't happen overnight. It happens over the long haul.
And so, I think the more we get to look at a candidate over a whole, long series of primaries, the more we sort of educate ourselves both consciously and unconsciously about who they are.
TODD: All right, the book, David Brooks, it's "The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character and Achievement"—I know you're on a book tour now. I'm sure that means not enough sleep and a lot of talking. David, thanks for coming on HARDBALL.
BROOKS: Hey, thank you.
TODD: You got it.
Well, that's HARDBALL for now. Thanks for being with us.
More politics ahead with Cenk Uygur, coming up.
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
By Karen Dam
Debates on natural gas persist, whether it will become a major (clean) energy source, and whether the growing means to attain it-hydraulic fracturing (or fracking)-is safe and sustainable. Pricing, infrastructure, air quality, and environmental contamination are vital issues being argued by both sides, which New England (the northeastern corner of the United States) must resolve as it looks for new energy sources to meet its future demand. Spectra Energy Corp. hopes it will be natural gas (see Energy Wire's recent article that discusses New England's options and Spectra Energy Corp. as a key player).
Spectra Energy owns and operates transportation and storage infrastructure, and is engaged in other natural gas-related activities such as processing. The company is pushing to secure long term contracts and expand its natural gas pipelines to reach new markets.
Given the current pricing of natural gas compared to other fossil fuels and renewable energy, customers may increasingly demand natural gas. The cost however for the new pipeline infrastructure will likely be added to customers' energy bills, suspects Andrew Pusateri, senior utilities analyst at Edward Jones.
What is next to been seen is whether Spectra Energy Corp., and other key players in the natural gas industry, will shoulder the burden of environmental costs (including toxic contamination and air pollution), or force it onto the public as well. Mike Benard, founder of Spectra Energy Watch and one of CSRHub's data sources, asserts that Spectra Energy has not been transparent nor socially responsible according to its track records (see Spectra Energy's 2009 10-K form, which acknowledges that toxic PCBs remain its it pipeline system).
[csrhubwidget company="Spectra-Energy-Partners-LP" size="650x100" hash="c9c0f7"]
As decisions about the energy future unfold, individuals can track the sustainability ratings of energy companies like Spectra Energy Corp. Plus, the list of 49 additional companies involved in fracking can also be viewed at CSRHub's website. The sustainability ratings of these companies change depending on whether the individual views fracking as a positive or negative means of extracting unconventional natural gas, and perhaps whether he/she thinks natural gas overall is a sustainable energy source.
Photo courtesy of Jeremy Buckingham MLC (Flickr CC).
Karen Dam is a Data Analyst for CSRHub. Karen completed her Bachelor of Science in Environmental Sciences at the University of Guelph, and a Master of Environmental Science at the University of Toronto Scarborough. She has enthusiastically filled research roles in the public sector. Karen has experiences in project management and research, including data collection and data management, analysis and synthesis. Karen actively volunteers with NGOs, including conservation authorities, to contribute to ecosystem protection, advocate environmental sustainability and of science literacy.


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Medieval Guy wrote:How? They aren't on PAB, so did you just ask somebody to grab you some? Also, I'm curious how much you paid.
I got them through the LUG bulk program. I selected the barding as one of my element choices. If you are part of a LUG it is something you could have done as well. Any LEGO piece in current production is a possible choice. As for the price, I don't think I am allowed to discuss that outside of the LUG.


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Obama Awards Oprah Medal of Freedom
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama opened a day of tributes to former President John F. Kennedy on Wednesday by bestowing the Presidential Medal of Freedom on prominent Americans, 50 years after Kennedy was assassinated weeks short of the medal's first award ceremony.
Obama presented the medal — the highest award the U.S. gives a civilian — to Oprah Winfrey, former President Bill Clinton, and leaders from the worlds of sports, entertainment, science and public service. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Steven Spielberg were among those gathered in the East Room of the White House to watch the ceremony.
"Today, we salute fierce competitors who became true champions," Obama said, pausing to speak in personal terms about each of the recipients and their contributions to society.
The ceremony marks the start of a day honoring Kennedy's legacy two days before the nation pauses to remember the 50th anniversary of his assassination. Later, Obama will pay a visit to the eternal flame that marks John F. Kennedy's gravesite. He'll be joined by first lady Michelle Obama and the Clintons at the ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.
Turning to the former White House inhabitant, Obama said that Bill Clinton's presidency had been only the start of his work to improve the world, crediting his post-presidency humanitarian works as helping to save or improve the lives of hundreds of millions around the world.
"I'm grateful, Bill, as well, for the advice and counsel that you've offered me, on and off the golf course," Obama said to chuckles. "And most importantly, for your lifesaving work around the world, which represents what's the very best in America."
Obama said the late Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, didn't just break the stratospheric glass ceiling, "she blasted right through it."
"Young girls need to see role models, she said. You can't be what you can't see," Obama said. "Today our daughters, including Malia and Sasha, can set their sights a little bit higher because Sally Ride showed them the way."
Receiving the award for Ride, who died last year, was Tam O'Shaughnessy, who was introduced as Ride's life partner.
The president made a point of highlighting those who had overcome additional obstacles and stigmatization because they were gay, black, female or Asian. He noted that early in her career, Oprah's bosses suggested she change her name to something more relatable.
"I got the same advice," Obama said.
Following the ceremony, Obama, Mrs. Obama and the Clintons rode together to Arlington for the wreath-laying. Members of Kennedy's family also rode in Obama's motorcade.
Kennedy established the modern version of the medal, but was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963, two weeks before he planned to honor the inaugural group of recipients. Hundreds of noteworthy figures have since received the medal.
As a teenager, Bill Clinton shook hands with Kennedy the summer before the assassination when he and other high school students in the Boys Nation program went to Washington.
In the evening, Obama plans a speech on Kennedy's legacy of service at a dinner at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History attended by current and past medal recipients, including baseball's Hank Aaron, astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, singer Aretha Franklin, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, activist Jesse Jackson and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
Kennedy's grandson, Jack Schlossberg, is to introduce Obama at the dinner. Other Kennedy relatives are expected to attend, including Robert Kennedy's daughter Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and former diplomat Jean Kennedy Smith, a former medal recipient and John F. Kennedy's only surviving sibling.
Friday marks 50 years to the day since Kennedy was slain while riding in an open car in a motorcade during a visit to Dallas. Obama plans to meet privately at the White House on Friday with leaders and volunteers from the Peace Corps program, also established by Kennedy.
The Clintons' presence at the eternal flame where Kennedy is buried is sure to spark speculation about whether Obama has a favorite in the 2016 race to succeed him.
For Hillary Rodham Clinton, his former secretary of state, her every move is scrutinized for signs of whether she'll run. Vice President Joe Biden, another potential candidate, plans to attend only the White House medal ceremony.


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ion: No progress in FairPoint Communications contract talks
COLCHESTER, Vt. (AP) � Contract talks are due to resume between FairPoint Communications and the largest union representing workers across Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers business manager Mike Spillane tells WPTZ-TV FairPoint is determined to gut benefits.
The union represents about 1,800 FairPoint employees in the three states. Members have voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike if necessary.
Health and retirement benefits are among the issues yet to be resolved. The company says current benefits are out of synch with industry norms and that it remains focused on reaching a successful agreement.
FairPoint spokeswoman Angelynne Amores Beaudry says the company has a plan in place to ensure continued service if the workers strike.
Information from: WPTZ-TV, http://www.thechamplainchannel.com


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Following the New Zealand Government's latest announcement, all of our stores in Greater Auckland are now open for customers with a range of comprehensive measures to keep team members and customers safe. We continue to follow government advice, and thank our amazing team for all their hard work helping our customers. Customers can get what they need in-store or by shopping online using our Click & Deliver or contactless Drive & Collect service.
Outdoor Living
How to design your outdoor room
Make the most of your living and entertaining areas by creating an outdoor living room to enjoy with your family.
Outdoor Living
How to install a shade sail
Find out you how to install a shade sail in your backyard.
Outdoor Living
Seven small outdoor area ideas
Discover seven small outdoor area ideas to make the most of the available space in your outdoor area. Visit Bunnings Warehouse for more ideas.
Outdoor Living
How to install bistro blinds
Find everything you need to know to help you install bistro blinds on a pergola.
Outdoor Living
How to build a timber screen
A timber screen is a great way to hide things in your garden. We'll show you how to build a screen that covers up a water tank.
How to build a pergola roof
You can add some extra shade to your pergola area by putting on a roof. We'll show you how to install crosspiece shade battens on your pergola.
Outdoor Living
How to install shade cloth
Find out how to install a shade cloth in the garden and protect your plants from the summer heat.
How to choose the perfect blind
Blinds are a great way to control light, set the mood, maintain privacy and they are ideal for simple clean living spaces. But how do you select the right blind for your home?


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Possible Duplicate:
Why Does the Transaction Log Keep Growing or Run Out of Space?
Is it possible to have SQL Server 2008 R2 reset the transaction log for certain databases when the database is backed up?
Auto backup job in SQL Server takes a backup of database XYZ and also of it's transaction log. When this backup has completed SQL Server will reset the transaction log (log file size will be increased to starting point)
Thank you.


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You can stop now. I swear. We faxed the release 5 hours ago. So far we've received back 22 faxed copies of MY OWN RELEASE (it was a fax, I promise we have the original) from you and 18 copies of his 14 page hospital records. At this rate I'm going to have to send Mary to Costco for more paper.
I'm sure getting a release from a real gosh-durn big city doctor-o-medicine was the most exciting thing to happen at your hospital since a paint truck overturned there in 1999, but you should try to curb your enthusiasm. I have all that I need now, and you can stop.


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A single tear streams down the face of Anna Alcis. In the last 72 hours, she has become a widow and a single mother of eight.
The family's fight is now getting support from Reverend Al Sharpton, after 43-year-old Carlo Alcis had a fatal heart attack during a NYPD raid of the family's home.
Sharpton demanded a full criminal investigation into the circumstances leading to Alcis's death.
"This case is one of the most horrific that I've heard of," said Sharpton. "Over a cell phone you raid folks house and criminalize a family, and you're a block a and a half away from the hospital, and don't even know how to deal with protecting someone that apparently needs medical attention."
"What happened, what's going on? Is that legal to go in somebody's house without a warrant?", said Alcis's brother Rudy.
Insisting police barged into their apartment in a frightening early morning raid, the distraught family has accused the NYPD of invading their home, a privacy intrusion so startling they believe it might have caused their father's fatal heart attack.
"When we woke up there were flashlights in our faces. We saw 10 police officers in the basement," said Imanuel Alcis, the victim's son.
The police say they were looking for a suspect who had punched a woman in the face and stole her phone.
They claim he was seen entering the building. That's when they started knocking on doors.
Police say the father Carlo Alcis opened his door. Police questioned the sons and determined they were not suspects, but then the father went into cardiac arrest.
"Blood come out from my brother's mouth. That's when they came over to my nephew to ask him to give him mouth to mouth," said Rudy Alcis, the victim's brother.
Police experts Eyewitness News spoke to say the policy on warrantless home searches is clear.
Permission is needed unless police are in fresh pursuit of a suspect committing a felony crime or in the case of serious danger such as a hostage situation.
Policy experts say neither case existed here.
"Everyone in the apartment sleeping. No idea how police gained entrance. No one gave permission to police to enter," said Sanford Rubenstein, family attorney.
While we may never know whether the search was a fatal invasion of a family's rights. It is clear a mistake was made in dispatching the ambulance which took more than 20 minutes to respond even though the hospital can be seen from the family home.
"The truth is, when the call came into EMS they were given the wrong address," said Israel Miranda, President, of the Uniformed Paramedics.
Police arrested 16-year-old Stephon Foster on Friday in connection with the cell phone robbery.
Foster lives in the building, but had no connection to the family.
He has at least four prior arrests.
The theft victim used her find my phone app and they tracked the phone down and the suspects prints were on the phone.
The NYPD says that they had permission to enter the home. The Brooklyn DA says they are waiting for the Medical Examiner's report before investigating.
The Medical Examiner's office says an autopsy was performed Friday afternoon but the results so far are inconclusive pending further testing.
"This family will fully cooperate with the district attorney's office and any other governmental agency that investigates this tragedy," said Rubenstein.


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After rummaging through some pictures from the past few years of fun rides, I need to get serious about planning for this year.
We usually do a lot of short 1 to 3 day rides around Wyoming, Utah, Colorado.
We are planning to attend the BMWST unrally in July in the Sierra Nevada's (I'm still working on Jan about running up to Redmond), and we usually make a couple of runs down to Torrey near Capitol Reef N.P. and at least one run over to Colorado. We really don't have any other rides "planned" this year, but we could end up doing some spring riding in Nevada and Arizona if things work out.
What are your plans for riding season this year?


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Stigmatized Properties in Maitland, Missouri, United States
To better filter, sort, and sift through addresses, check out the browse page or use the search bar by clicking the search icon above.
- comment
Maitland, MO, US
Seized by DEA: This property was listed in the DEA National Clandestine Laboratory Registry. Law enforcement agencies reported they found chemicals or other items that indicated the presence of either clandestine drug laboratories or dumpsites.Read More »


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Living in Concordia
Life in Concordia can be divided into four seasons even though the weather in Concordia hardly changes all year. The seasons in Concordia are linked to sunlight and routines. As the Sun disappears completely during the winter, social events such as evening meals or birthday celebrations become important to help keep track of time.
Bright and busy summer: November to February
During the Antarctic summer the base is awash with over 60 scientists and technicians performing science and maintenance in preparation for the winter. Many of the summer guests sleep in heated tents near Concordia base.
During this time the Sun never sets below the horizon and aircraft arrive on an almost daily basis.
Failing Sun: March to May
By February all but a handful of people will have left, leaving a skeleton crew on the base to fend for themselves. The base can hold 16 but needs a technical manager, chef, doctor, communications technician, plumber, mechanic and an electrician to function safely. Empty beds can be filled by scientists of all disciplines.
This is a period of adjustment for the crew, getting to know each other and preparing for the onset of winter.
The long darkness: May to August
Winter proper arrives shortly after Easter with over four months of darkness, cold temperatures and no chance of rescue in an emergency.
Life becomes very structured, centred on social moments such as daily meals. Crewmembers can phone internationally and Internet is available but many start to feel disconnected from their contacts at home.
The Sun reborn: September to November
Once past the longest night in the world, things start to get brighter as the Sun rises near the horizon. The first sunrise is always a remarkable moment. From then on the winter crew start preparing for summer and the return of the summer scientists.
The base is cleaned thoroughly, machinery is serviced, tents are erected and heated, and the runway is cleared of snow. Extensive work is required to welcome the new arrivals back to the base at the end of the world.
Around November the first aircraft can land safely at Concordia base, bringing with it the welcome cargo of fresh fruit and food.
Adapting to the arrival of new faces is not as easy as it might seem. After living around nine months in isolation in a tight group, it can take some getting used to the new arrivals and their different practices.


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Or not.
Below is the new episode of my new video series, which airs every Tuesday and Saturday at 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. only on CW39′s NEWSFIX.
This is the eighth episode I've done, and I'm finally starting to get the hang of this TV thing. In the new episode I talk about the Bigfoot controversy, and have some fun with the idea.
And if I do say so myself, the graphics in the video are laugh-out-loud funny.
Also, if you missed last week's episode on poor hand-washing habits, be sure to check it out. Seinfeld fans will approve.
To see all the previous episodes of this video series, please go here.


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Matrox DS1 full review
Thunderbolt, the high-speed data interface developed by Intel for Apple, promised plenty when it launched in spring 2011. Aside from its sheer bandwidth, one of its mooted benefits was that one cable could replace many others, simplifying the tangle of wires that desktop computing still demands.
See: What is Thunderbolt?
The grand idea is that of the universal expansion box, a Thunderbolt dock where one single high-capacity connection takes on diverse video, audio and data roles. This is all centred on a single break-out box, to make a convenient multi-purpose digital hub.
And that's the very principle behind the Matrox DS1 with its one high-speed Thunderbolt port feeding a range of useful desktop peripherals.
Running that one Thunderbolt cable from your PC to the box here gives you three USB ports, gigabit ethernet, DVI for connecting a display, plus analogue audio in and out. For ultraportables like the MacBook Air, such expansion should be a godsend as it reinstates culled legacy interfaces like wired ethernet.
The Matrox DS1, like several other fanfared Thunderbolt expansion docks, is nearly two years late. Shortly after the launch of Thunderbolt with the Apple MacBook Pro (Early 2011) in February of 2011, several third-party manufacturers were announcing their intention to launch such devices.
Belkin, for example, showed assorted rehashed incarnations of its Thunderbolt expansion box over successive trade shows, with none quite making it to market. Its Thunderbolt Express Dock is now scheduled to appear sometime early this year.
In the case of Matrox' DS1, its specs were revised between initial announcement and production, including the repositioning of the USB 3.0 port from rear to front by the time it came to market.
But it is Matrox who was the first to ship product with this Matrox DS1, which went on sale in the final fortnight of last year.
Matrox DS1: Features
The Matrox DS1 box is a compact enclosure, the size of a tall pocket phrasebook, designed to lie flat on its rubber feet. It's made from folded aluminium, spray-painted with a darker silver metallic finish.
The placement of ports is a little peculiar: the one and only Thunderbolt port is at the front, along with the single USB 3.0 port.
All the remaining socketry is at the rear. Ranging from left to right, we have: DVI-D, gigabit ethernet, two USB 2.0, 3.5mm headphone jack, 3.5mm audio line/mic input, and DC power input.
It's confusing to establish which is the 'front' and which the 'back' of this unit. Whichever way you face it, it's not especially pretty and you will still have a minor birds' nest of cables to contend with. There is the potential to stash the whole ensemble out of sight – but that leaves you without handy access to the USB ports and headphones jack.
Thunderbolt is a powered bus, but with far less power available to it than FireWire, for example, and the box does require additional external power.
A small 24W mains adaptor plug is included, which ought to be sufficient to power any connected USB device too. When we plugged an iPhone into one USB 2.0 port, the DS1 was able to charge it, although a USB keyboard plugged into the adjacent USB 2.0 port then became disconnected.
[This review was updated 1 Feb 2013 to reflect the correct power rating of the included DC mains adaptor.]
Two options are provided for display connection, either DVI or HDMI, and you must choose between them at time of purchase.
Matrox DS1 is available with a single-link DVI video output...
..or with HDMI 1.2, limited to 1920 x 1200 pixel resolution output
Both version are limited in quality, to just 1920 x 1200-pixel output. While HDMI 1.3 and above and dual-link DVI both support output to 2560 x 1600 or more, if you have such a display you're out of luck here.
That's because Thunderbolt is a daisy-chainable serial data standard, and devices can be positioned either within the chain or at the end of it. But with its single Thunderbolt port, the Matrox DS1 is relegated to be connected only at the end of this chain, where you would otherwise connect your monitor.
For Macs with one Thunderbolt port, for instance, that means you won't be able to get 2560 x 1600-pixel displays to work as designed.
Also missing from the Matrox DS1's roster are any FireWire ports, or digital-audio interfaces such as Toslink or coaxial S/PDIF.
Matrox DS1: Performance
As an expansion box for splitting Thunderbolt's fast PCI Express lanes into various other formats, the Matrox DS1 needs to ensure that all its user-facing ports behave within their specification.
We already discovered first-hand that the amount of power supplied to the three USB ports is insufficient to run connected peripherals correctly. In addition, the Matrox DS1 also seems to compromise data throughput.
We tested the speed of the USB 3.0 port, relative to a built-in example on the connected MacBook Pro (Late 2012), using an attached solid-state drive.
The drive was a Plextor M5 Pro, a SATA 6Gbps SSD capable of in excess of 500 MBps, even if all USB 3.0 adaptors we've tried to date are unable to meet this 4 Gbps throughput. Using a Seagate GoFlex USB 3.0 HBA adaptor, we recorded sequential read speeds up to 210 MBps and write speeds up to 195 MBps, through the MacBook's native USB 3.0 port.
Turning to the USB 3.0 port on the front of the Matrox DS1, read speeds fell to 151 MBps and write speeds to 143 MBps. So in this instance the Matrox DS1's USB 3.0 port couldn't even support the below-spec speed of an underperforming USB 3.0 SATA adaptor.
The headphone jack worked well enough, its output a little lower in volume than the built-in port on the MacBook and with slightly reduced fidelity. Bass did not sound so full extended although noise levels were below our office hearing threshold.
In use the Matrox DS1 ran very warm but never to the point of being hot. We experienced some issues with disconnection, primarily when trying to restore the MacBook from sleep – sometimes the USB keyboard wouldn't wake the laptop, forcing us to remove and replug the Thunderbolt cable.
Matrox DS1: Specs
- Thunderbolt expansion dock
- 1x Thunderbolt port
- DVI-D (HDMI 1.2 verson also available)
- 2x USB 2.0, 1x USB 3.0
- gigabit ethernet
- 3.5mm line/mic input, 3.5mm headphone/line out
- 12V DC input
- 24W mains adaptor plug
- 200 x 90 x 32mm
- 472g
Best prices today
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L V x Sup Nail Stickers
Which Size To Pick?
Our Nail Decals sheets come in sizes: Standard, Medium, Large & Extra Large.
(Except for Pattern Nail Decals, those come in 5.09cm x 5.09cm sheets)
*Please note that these are Nail Decals and not Nail Wraps therefore are not meant to cover the entire nail*
Each of these sizes sheets contain their own 3 different Nail Decal sizes in order to fit every fingernail from little pinky to the thumb. You can find the dimensions in the product description or here:
If you are unsure which size option to pick, please read the following in order to find out which size sheet is more suitable for your needs.
The reason this is the standard size is because this option will fit any size nails even super short nails. This option is mostly recommended for natural nails as they are rather small. You can still place these on longer or false nails but they may look too small on them.
This option is again recommended for natural nails. They will not fit super short but will look great on slightly longer medium natural nails. Again, you can place these on long or false nails but they may look too small on them.
This option will be too big for natural nails but will look great on long false nails. These Nail Decals still won't take up too much space on the nail therefore leaving room for other nail art.
Extra Large
This option will be too big for natural nails but will also look great on long false nails. This option is great if you want to dedicate a nail solely for the Nail Decal alone as it will take up most of the space on the nail.
No Options available?
We are still adding all of these options to our website but it's a long process. If you desire any of these sizes but there is no option available yet, we can priorities your request. Simply:
- Place your order
- Right after placing your order, please email sally@shopkeeki with your name/order number. Then the name of your Nail Decal(s) and which size you would like in.
You will get a confirmation from us & Nail Decals will be adjusted as requested.


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Looking for a different kind of jQuery banner? ZoomShowcase is a unique jQuery Banner that will add a fresh look to your website. It's built on top of jQuery 1.10.2, and comes with several customizable options.
- Cycle through multiple images
- Set the zoom out percentage and total banner width
- Adjust the animation speed and easing type
- Adjust the opacity of the side items
- Choose auto-play and auto-play delay
- Randomize the slide order automatically
- Create as many text slogans per slide as you want
- Text is optional, along with text position and color
- Link an entire slide or just a text item
Special Notes
- HTML5 Doctype is not required
- The banner preloads all images so using a large amount of images is not recommended
- The banner requires at least 4 images to work correctly
- Only 3 visible slides are supported (front and 2 sides)
- The border and shadow can be edited in the CSS file (instructions included)
- The banner uses @font-face for the font and CSS3 for the shadow
- Imagery used in the preview are for demo purposes only and are not included in the source download.


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Visiting the Vatican any time soon? You better bring cash. Deutsche Bank Italia, which had provided the Vatican with electronic payment services for some 15 years, said Thursday that the Bank of Italy ordered it to deactivate its terminals, effective Jan. 1.
Tourists and pilgrims visiting the world's tiniest state over the New Year's holiday were forced to pay for their museum tickets, souvenirs and other fees at the Vatican's post office, pharmacy and shops by cash after the central bank blocked all electronic payments.
According to the Corriere della Sera newspaper, the central bank took the action because the Holy See (the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome) has yet to fully comply with European Union safeguards against money laundering.
Pope Benedict has promised more transparency in Vatican finances, including the operations of its bank, the Institute for Works of Religion, which has been implicated in money-laundering scandals in the past. Last year, experts from the Council of Europe claimed "the Holy See has come a long way in a very short period of time," but they called on the Vatican to "strengthen its system of vigilance." The Holy See was, thus, required to meet the EU safeguards by the start of 2013 -- something, it seems, that did not occur.
Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told Corriere della Sera that the suspension of bank card payments should be "short-lived," but in the meantime, tourists will have to fork over cash for all services.
Tourism is a major money-maker for the city-state. According to official estimates, some five million tourists visited the Vatican museum last year and spent more than 91.3 million euros ($120 million) on tickets and souvenirs. The new cash-only policy came on the same day the museum hiked its full fare to 16 euros ($21).
A notice on the website for the museum, which includes Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel and other masterpieces, apologized for any inconvenience, but it said it was "beyond [its] control."


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Long Story Short – Solomon Enos – Hawaiian Artist & Renaissance Man
Leslie Wilcox talks story with Hawaiian Renaissance man Solomon Enos. The muralist, painter, book illustrator, comic strip creator, educator, and futuristic storyteller is also the groundskeeper for the forest preserve in the back of Kalihi Valley – the site of Kokua Kalihi Valley Comprehensive Family Services. Enos draws inspiration from the land and considers it a "sentient" that must nurtured the way one nurtures a family member. Enos also talks about developing his Honolulu Advertiser comic strip Polyfantastica into a graphic novel.
Long Story Short with Leslie Wilcox is a production of PBS Hawaii.
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